Although donations were down this year, last-minute pleas through social media attracted enough donations for what could be the largest number of hampers distributed through Santa's Anonymous yet.
There were a total of 167 hampers distributed the week before Christmas and in 2012 there were 159.
ìAs far as I know that's the biggest amount ever for Sundre,î said Kim Free, the 2013 program coordinator for Santa's Anonymous.
In the last few weeks leading up to Christmas, volunteers posted pleas on Facebook's Sundre Buy and Sell page saying that donations were down this year and more was needed.
ìThe last couple days of the program it seemed like we were running low on things and it was really stressful, but people really responded by going grocery shopping and bringing in a whole truckload full of clothes, or another family that went and bought a whole bunch of clothing,î said Free.
ìIt was really cool how kind of last minute we had our stock replenished so we could finish the rest of the hampers.î
She believes the overland flooding in June may have been a factor in the fewer donations.
ìIt just seems that financially people are struggling a little bit more this year,î she said.
It was her first year taking on the job after Mary Gunderson had held the position for two years.
ìIt was a big learning curve. It was really challenging to be honest,î admitted Free.
ìIt was incredible to see the number of volunteers that wanted to be involved.î
The volunteer base for the program this year involved about 100 people.
ìThat takes a lot of coordination, of, you know, who is going to be responsible for what job,î she said.
The jobs included sorting, collecting cardboard boxes and making phone calls to all of the hamper recipients. Volunteers were putting together roughly 35 hampers each day.
ìThere are things that go on behind the scenes that a lot of people don't know about.î
Her experience with the program involved many significant moments.
ìThere were families that I talked to on the phone ñ and I wouldn't ask them why they were needing a hamper ñ but oftentimes they would tell me about how someone in the family was recently diagnosed with cancer, or the dad or the mom in the family had lost their job and is just struggling financially,î she said.
She talked to each family before putting the hampers together so they would suit each family's needs.
ìEverybody that I talked to of course had a story as to why they're having a hard year. Some of them chose to share more information than others of course,î she said.
ìWhen they would come to pick up the hampers, me and the volunteers would get lots of big hugs, and you would just look in their eyes and their eyes would be full of tears and gratitude.
ìIt's an incredible opportunity to match up the people in Sundre that want to give and want to help with the people that need the help. And I think that's really special.î
